Broken
by DiscordantSymphony
Summary: Sam is a murderer, Jess is broken and Matt is just trying to silently cope with choices he made, there all broken in little ways. How do you learn to live with yourself when you're placed in a situation where you have to make terrible choices to survive? How do you learn to live again? (Josh is dead, Sam does...not handle it well, Jess and Matt are both pretty broken.)
1. Chapter 1

Broken.

Chapter One

Samantha Taylor's lungs burned with effort as she tried to keep holding her breath, her muscles were aching to tremble after she had been summerged so long in the icy cold water, her teeth were begging to chatter but she did not let any of that happen. She wouldn't allow it or she was dead. If any of them moved then they were all dead.

It was like something out of a nightmare, pale skin and milky, bulbous eyes. Long gangly limes and pointed teeth and sharp claws where it's nails should've been. It was human once, that was clear by it's sharp even when it was so distorted.

The butterfly tattoo on it's arm told her who the creature used to be even though her mind tried desperately to deny it. Hannah. Her best friend, her poor misguided friend who had been put into a terrible situation by their friends and spent weeks down in the dark mines of the mountains, cold and starving with only her twin's corpse as any company.

And then a source of nourishment.

It didn't seem fair, it wasn't fair. That simple act of survival had condemned her to this, she was starving and now she was transformed into a monster simply because she didn't want to die and Beth had already been dead, she might want to think that she would never do that, that she would hold to her principals above all else but it was so easy for her, she had access to food her entire life.

She had never once been truly hungry in her entire life.

And Hannah was only forced to make such a terrible choice because of the situation that Mike and the others had put her in, she may have run into the snowstorm but she would never have done that if it weren't for that utterly stupid prank that she didn't have anything to do with.

Mike was standing on the other side of the lodge his hand reaching out and curling around the light bulb and increased the pressure on the bulb and his face scrunched up as the glass bite into his hand and he pulled his hand away as the glass that wasn't currently embedded in his hand tinkled to the floor and he let his hand fall to his side.

This could work, the gas pipe was still hissing and Sam was starting to feel a little lightheaded from the gas, they needed to pull this off quick or they would all die from gas inhalation before they had a chance to blow the lodge up.

The tinkling of the glass hitting the floor seemed to draw Hannah's attention back to Michael and she began to stalk over to him, Mike's eyes locked on to Sam and he could see the desperate plea in his eyes. Begging her to save him.

She opened her mouth slightly but she didn't speak, her mind racing as she tried to process the thought that came into her mind at that exact moment.

Did he really deserve her saving him? Wasn't all this his fault? And Emily's and Jessica's, it was their actions that had lead them all to this, Josh had only played this stupid, cruel prank because of what happened to his sisters the year before and they were the ones responsible for them running away.

Emily was here as well, so was Ashley, both of them were inching towards the door so they could make their escape and leave the hard work to her and Mike. It didn't surprise her all that much, Ashley was a sheep and a coward, she would always take the safest option and she was choosing escape.

Emily was someone who put herself first so her trying to save herself didn't surprise her at all, she had always hated her. She hated all of them.

She didn't always, they had been friends before that stupid prank but after the prank she had stayed away from everyone aside from Chris and Josh, they had gotten her best friend and her best friend's sister killed.

Chris and Josh were both dead, Chris had never come back with that stranger and Mike said that he couldn't save Josh, bastard probably didn't even try to help him. Poor Josh, her Josh was laying dead somewhere in those cold dark mines.

Jessica and Matt were probably dead as well, Mike was sure that Jess was dead even though she hadn't seen a body and there had been no sign of Matt all night and given how Emily had reacted when they asked what had happened to him she probably had something to do with it, probably left him to die as well.

It was just her, Mike, Ash and Emily. If she distracted Hannah long enough then she could help them to escape, but why should she? Why did they deserve her risking her life for them?

She could barely comprehend when her legs started to carry her away, she briefly caught the look of shock and despair on Mike's face as she ran off, she rushed past Emily and Ash and she could feel Hannah on her tail, she ran through the door and flicked the switch as she ran out, desperate screams and shrieks following her..

A massive gust of hot wind picked her up and sent her flying and she collided hard with the snowy ground outside of the lodge, after a few shaky breaths of disbelief at the fact she was still alive she pushed herself up to her feet and turned to look back at the lodge.

The massive structure was completely on fire, every single window was shattered by the blast and flames were billowing out every single window and black smoke was reaching up to turn the early morning sky black.

She had done it, she realised numbly as the first rays of the sun warmed her skin. It was morning, it was over. In the distance she could hear the low thrum of helicopter blades approaching, the smoke and the burning lodge attracting them, she had heard of a signal fire but she didn't think they would need one.

Oh god what had she done? She'd just killed Mike and Emily and Ash, she had killed them when she had flipped that light switch. She was a monster. She was a murder.

And yet...as the helicopters grew closer she found that the guilt was slowly starting to fade away, there was nothing but apprehension of being punishing for what she had done left. She had to save herself, there was no choice. If she had stayed and distracted Hannah while the others made their escape then she would most defiantly been killed.

They would not doubt be some pretty words said at her funeral, how brave she was at the end, how she was a true hero but they would simply be that. Pretty words that she wouldn't be able to hear from her coffin.

She choose herself, she choose to keep living, she choose to survive.

She and Hannah had always gotten along the best out of the entire group, she thought with a weary grin.

Sam sat down in front of the burning lodge and waited, the sound of helicopter blades was louder now and she realised with a sigh, that it was finally over. She was going to go home.

As soon as she thought that there was the sound of a loud snap, like someone stepping on a twig and Sam held her breath as she cursed inwardly, this whole night had been like a bad horror movie so of course it wasn't over yet, she was the blond at the end who thought all the monsters were dead and the nightmare was over while the monster who survived reared up behind her.

She slowly got to her feet, if she was going to die then she was at least going to die on her feet, and turned around to face the forest but as she did so her eyes widen at disbelief at what she saw was coming out of the woods.

They both looked like shit, to be utterly frank about it but they were both alive and that was important thing, the smaller one was clinging to the taller one like she would collapse if he wasn't there to hold her up and given the state that she was in then she probably would.

Matt and Jess, they were both still alive and making there way over to the lodge. Matt's brown eyes widened as he took in the sight of the burning lodge but Jessica barely reacted at all, she looked she was half asleep and it looked she was half mumbling something herself.

Matt's eyes drifted to her and Sam locked her eyes with his and for a moment there was silent understanding between them.

Questions could come later, they were alive and that was all that mattered.

End of Chapter One

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	2. Chapter 2

Broken.

Chapter Two.

Matt let out a sigh of relief as the helicopter finally took off from the mountain and they began to fly away from the still burning lodge, the nightmare was over and they were going home. It had been a long night for all of them and it was going to leave scars on all of them, some physical and some emotional.

A soft whimper drew his attention and he turned his head to look down at Jessica, he sighed sadly as he saw the state she was in, there were deep gorges on her chest and face and he was honestly surprised that she was still alive let alone being able to move on her own power. She was stronger that Matt had ever thought though to be honest before this whole nightmare he hadn't though about Jess much, if at all.

She had been clinging to him ever since they got out of the mines, though he was certain that it was as much for comfort as it was for support. He needed some comfort as well, it had been a long night. He'd spent most of it in those damn mines, trying his hardest to find a way out. He had been cold and terrified, constantly worrying that the pyscho who had killed Josh or that monster that had attacked him would be waiting for him just around the next corner.

Worse than even that, he had been terrified that he would never be able to find his way out of the damp passages, that the rest of his life would be wandering around half blind and starving to death down there. He couldn't think of anything worse than that and it had took a lot of strength to just keep walking, to not just give up, curl into a ball and cry.

When he had found Jess there weren't words for how happy he'd been, he was still terrified of course but he could at least pretend that he was brave, for her he could do that.

It hadn't been easy, not when Jess could barely walk and it was pitch black. It had gotten worse when he heard that high pitched shriek from somewhere not very far behind them and he knew that it was chasing them again. It was going to kill them if they didn't get out. There had been a heart stopping moment where he thought that he might have to abandon her down there to save himself but he didn't do that, he couldn't do that. He had saved her.

From then it had been a long, slow struggle down the snowy mountain but all things considered it could've been a lot worse, dawn wasn't far off and the lodge wasn't far from where they had come out. When the lodge went up like a Christmas tree, it wasn't like they could've gotten lost then. When he had seen Sam he had been ecstatic, it didn't last long when he noticed that she was the only one there.

He suppoused it was foolish to expect that everyone else would still be alive, that it would be the typical Hollywood happy ending. Well, he supposed he was in a horror movie now that he thought on it some more and they weren't known for everybody lives endings.

Still, the fact that at least Sam was alive made him happy. He liked Sam a lot, Matt had kind of always been the newest member of the group back in the day as he only hung out with them because Emily did and for the most part the group had always only ever treated as Em's boyfriend.

Sam was the only one whoever treated him as his own person, like he could ever be their friend and not just Emily's boyfriend, someone they had to hang out with because they had too. Of course at the time no one knew that he was Em's boyfriend, she was still officially dating Mike and she was just his best friend.

He still remembered the day when she had told him that she had broken up with Mike and they could properly be together, it had been the happiest he had been for awhile due to Beth and Hannah having gone missing at the lodge last year. He needed as much good news as he could get.

The three of them had sat together on in front of the lodge as the helicopters began to descend on them, it was odd to think that the fire that warmed them was a burning building filled with the bodies of their friends but at that moment they had been too cold to think of it.

Even despite the fire, Sam had given Jess her jacket which Matt had to putt over her considering she barely seemed to be aware of what was happening around her, her head hanging low and her eyes were clearly trying to shut. They did everything they could think of to keep her awake but there had been a few moments where he honestly thought that they were going to lose her.

Thankfully, the two helicopters landed quickly and there were paramedics waiting for them, they quickly did all they could to stabilise her but they decided that she needed to be in the hospital, they also said that Sam and Matt needed to be checked over as well. They tried to take Jess into another helicopter but when they tried to move her from him Jess tightened her hold on his arm and could not be persuaded to let go of him.

So that was how they ended up in the same helicopter together with a thick blanket covering the both of them, Matt honestly didn't mind. He felt more than a little clingy himself if he was going to be honest and Jess was in agony, she needed more comfort than the rest of them.

"Where are we Mike, are we going home?" Jess muttered as she nuzzled into his shoulder, Matt frowned heavily as he reached up and pressed his hand to her forehead, her skin was burning to touch and she sounded like she was delirious. Matt wasn't a doctor but he was sure they needed to get some serious antibiotics into her as soon as possible, maybe even a blood transfusion or two.

"We're heading home right now Jess, we just need to stop by the hospital for the day just to make sure that we're going to be okay." He said gently, he didn't want to tell her the truth about Mike in case it made her panic and made her unstable, she would find out soon enough as it was.

"Okay." Jess whimpered and shut her eyes, her chest rising and falling in a slow rhythm as she fell asleep. Matt sighed heavily and shut his eyes while leaning his head back, he could maybe get at least a few minuets of sleep.

His sleep was fretful, he dreamed about him and Em on the fire tower, she was out of his reach and there was nothing he could do, the metal was creaking and the smell of smoke surrounded him and it was going to fall and Emily was going to fall and it was going to fall and he didn't want to _die_ -

He awoke with a gasp, one of the paramedics looked at him with an expression of concern on his face but he didn't say anything. He hated the pity in his eyes, he didn't need any pity from him, he hadn't done anything wrong and he had survived. He was fine, he was perfectly fine.

The helicopter finally landed and the door slid opened, Jess was carried out and over to a stretcher which was wheeled over to the elevator that dominated the roof of the hospital, it was Blackwood General, Matt realised as he stepped out on to the roof, he could almost see Blackwood itself, half a mile away from the foot of the mountain.

Thinking of Blackwood caused a pit to form in his gut, everyone knew them in Blackwood, it only had a population of thirty-five thousand people, everyone was going to know what happened up on the mountain or they would try and find out what happened. There would be reporters outside their doors all the time for weeks and weeks.

Oh god. What was he supposed to say to Emily's parents, to Mike's and Ashley's and Josh's and Chris's? They would want to know what happened to their kids but what could he say? How could he explain about the monsters without sounding like he was someone who needed to be in a Psych Ward?

What if people thought that he and Sam and Jess had killed them? It was more logical explanation than monsters that had torn them limb from limb, maybe they could blame it all on the Pyscho? That was probably the best option now that he thought about it, god even the thought to retelling that night made his want to just curl up in a corner and die.

The feel of a hand touching his shoulder made him spin around, he would've thrown a punch as well but it was only Sam. He let out a deep breath and rubbed at his eyes, he was so tired. "Sorry Sam, I'm still just kind of a bit jumpy, you know?"

"Hey, I think if anyone's earned the right to be a little jumpy? It's us." Sam said with a warm smile that did not reach her eyes, the paramedics from the helicopter that Sam had been riding in were waiting for them at the elevator. "We should get inside, it's freezing and we need to call our folks."

"God Sam, what are we supposed to even say? I was down in those mines for hours, I don't even know most of what happened." To be honest, he got the feeling that he didn't even want to know what had happened to the rest of them going by the look in Sam's eye.

"Just tell them the truth, or, as much of it as you think you should." The words shocked Mike but Sam didn't even seem to notice, she simply shrugged her shoulders. "Sometimes a lie is better than the truth, I'm sorry about Emily."

"Yeah." It hurt to think about Em, sure, she could be kind of a bitch sometimes and she seemed to be real intent on being a pain in the ass that night but he knew it was only because she was stressed and terrified and being abrasive was her natural defence. It didn't excuse the attitude but it was just a part of her.

Few people ever saw the good in Em, they didn't see how she could be funny and she could be so funny, Matt had laughed more times when he was with her than he had ever done without her. Her wit could be a little sharp and sometimes it was a little mean-spirited but most of the time she focused it on people who deserved it and she never took any hits on someone who was down.

She had been determined as well, she wanted to be the first female president and Matt knew that she was more than smart enough to do it. And more generous than most people realised, she donated money to charities and always bought her friends the most expensive things that she could, but also made sure that they were something that they actually liked.

And well she had never shown it to any of the others, she had been more devastated than any of them over what had happened to Hannah and Beth. She had spent the first week when they were missing blaming herself, it may have been Jess's idea to throw that stupid prank but she was the only reason that her best friend had done it in the first place.

Em had told him that she should've just broken things off with Mike a lot sooner, she should've just let Hannah have him even though in her opinion they would've been a complete train wreck. She had just kept on blaming herself, even a full year later there were days when she just all of a sudden got very quiet.

And now to, think of her broken body just laying down there at the bottom of that endless pit, her eyes just staring at nothing...It made him want to be sick. And it was his fault, he had let her fall. Didn't even try and save her, he'd jumped to safety as soon as he saw that he could.

All of sudden, something struck him like a slap to the face and his eyes widen as he stared at Sam. "Sam...was Em with you guys in the lodge?"

"Yeah?" Sam said hesitantly with a loose shrug. "She told us that the two of you got separated in the mines when the fire tower fell, she thought that you were dead."

"And...and she died in the lodge? The fire?" Matt asked, trying to pretend that his voice didn't break and that tears weren't burning at his eyes and he had to blink rapidly to hold them back. The worst thing was, he wasn't sure if the tears were because he was pained with the fact that Emily was actually drink or because that he was relived that it wasn't due to his decision that Emily had died.

When Sam nodded he let out a chocked off sob which he tried to pretend was a cough, he rubbed at his eyes and cleared his throat. "We...we should probably get inside."

Sam nodded and took Matt's hand, leading him over to the elevator. It descended down to the floor below, it opened up and a small team of nurses were waiting for them beyond. They were quickly hurried into separate exam rooms and Matt was left waiting for what seemed like hours but could have just as easily been ten minutes.

Finally a near sighted, balding doctor with cold hands started to examine him. Compared to Jess it was practically nothing, a few bruises and a sprained shoulder from where he had landed hard against the wooden platform that he had jumped too to get clear of the falling fire tower.

Barely anything at all, from the worst night of his entire life.

The doctor gives him some painkillers and Matt swallows them dry, before long his head began to get fuzzy and he couldn't hold it up, the doctor mummers something about dose and laid him down gently on the exam bench, pulling a thin sheet up to his chin.

As the darkness took him, all Matt found himself hoping for was the darkness would hold no monsters for him.

End of Chapter Two.

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